Some Kosovars Return Home Reluctantly

Published: April 21, 2000

PRISTINA, Kosovo, April 20—
For nearly a year, home for Fadil Metaj was Australia, where he made money by picking fruit and his sons attended good schools.

He would have been happy to stay there, even in a refugee camp on the other side of the world.

But Mr. Metaj and his family are among about 2,000 refugees who have arrived back in Kosovo in recent weeks. Many have come unwillingly after being pushed out by Western governments that say Kosovo is now safe.

''We didn't want to come,'' said Mr. Metaj, 41, his face gaunt and his gaze unfocused. ''He who has no job has no money, has no good life.''

While some people are glad to begin again in a more peaceful homeland, others are fearful of a future in a province still torn by ethnic hatreds, rampant unemployment and a lack of basics like regular power, drinking water and garbage disposal.

Mr. Metaj, his wife and two sons, aged 8 and 11, were among 114 Kosovo refugees who reluctantly returned from Sydney over the weekend after threats that they would be forcibly deported. A dozen others refused to leave and were placed in detention centers.

Nearly 4,000 Kosovo refugees were granted temporary visas in Australia last year while ethnic Albanians were fleeing a government crackdown. The vast majority have returned home.

But Mr. Metaj, who just arrived back in Kosovo on a bus from Macedonia and an exhausting plane ride, said he and his family would have gladly remained in Australia.

Before fleeing to Macedonia last year, Mr. Metaj used to deliver tomatoes and lemons in his truck. But he says his truck was stolen by Serbs after he left, and the money he earned in Victoria State in southeastern Australia has run out.

Serbian soldiers took over the family's house on a hill in northeast Pristina. The troops are gone now, but so is the family's refrigerator, stove and television set. The house is defaced by graffiti, paint smears and broken windows.

Switzerland, Britain, Norway, France and Germany have all recently said that they will send back thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees now that security has improved and the weather is warmer.

Germany said today that it may force tens of thousands of refugees, including both Albanians from Kosovo and earlier arrivals from Bosnia, to leave if they do not accept an offer of $1,000 to depart voluntarily.

How many Kosovo natives are currently living outside the province is not known. Germany has said it has up to 170,000 refugees and Switzerland has about 30,000.

The Yugoslav republic of Serbia, meanwhile, has tens of thousands of Kosovo Serbs who fled, fearing revenge attacks from Albanians. Once numbering more than 200,000 -- about 10 percent of Kosovo's population -- the Serbian population now is less than half that.

Bringing back Serbs is both a political and a security issue.

The United Nations has tentatively agreed to Serbian plans to return about 20,000 Serbs, but there are concerns about providing security for them. Many Serbs going about their daily business in Albanian-dominated areas are now assigned bodyguards or peacekeeper escorts.

There are American plans to resettle 700 Serbs in the northwest Kosovo village of Osojane by summer, but that is dependent on the cooperation of ethnic Albanian officials and the local community.